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HOA disputes can get personal fast when someone decides your garden does not match the neighborhood aesthetic.

After the previous landscaping incident, this homeowner keeps a simple patch of mint that neighbors even enjoy picking.

This time, the HOA skips any warning and sends workers onto the property to rip everything out anyway.

Read on how the bill landed heavily.

AITA for refusing to pay my HOA that hired a landscaping crew on my house without my permission?

The lady that’s the head of my HOA has always disliked our garden.

We hire ppl that mow our lawn weekly & everything is clean, but my mom liked to plant things (like tomatoes, cabbages, and mint) in the garden that doesn’t quite fit well with the so-called aesthetic of the neighborhood, where everyone has black mulch.

My mom doesn’t speak English, and before the pandemic when we were out of the country, we didn’t receive the letters that the HOA sent about our garden, and it ended up hiring a landscaping crew that killed all of our tomatoes and put mulch there instead.

I checked the mail and realized it was us who didn’t receive their letters, so we paid the company.

The mint is still thriving.

We’ve been in the US ever since.

While my mom gave up on tomatoes and cabbages, we still have a strain of mint that we planted, and it grew in our garden.

In fact, plenty of people in the neighborhood come and pick some of our mints (after asking ofc).

I personally think it looks pretty since it’s just green and I didn’t think they’d have a problem w that.

They did.

The HOA lady had no excuse not to warn them.

The HOA lady has my phone number, she has my email address (she had emailed that address before), and my mom had given her the contact of one of her friends, so he’d be able to translate for her if the HOA lady needed anything.

She never contacted any of us; instead, one day, a landscaping crew just came in without our permission and again, pulled out all our mint.

And now we got a bill for two thousand dollars.

OP doesn’t want to pay.

When I emailed her about it, she told me that she thought we weren’t home, which is bs bc our lights are literally on every day and our car goes in and out of the driveway daily.

I’ve even said hello to her when passing by.

She didn’t even make one attempt to contact us, and she thought that since we paid the first landscaper we agree that she can hire people to do our garden.

AITA if I refuse to pay her?

That HOA lady is the type that makes all HOAs look bad. I’d be upset about the tomatoes and cabbages, and I’d be even more upset about the mint.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

This person wouldn’t want to pay that bill either.

Another person suggests going to court.

An HOA board member offers some advice.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a man who stops helping his neighbors out with his snowplow after they complain about his farm.

This person asks a lot of questions.

The HOA president admitted she never contacted the family before hiring landscapers to remove the mint and then billing them $2,000.

Commenters overwhelmingly backed OP, pointing out that the HOA hired the crew and should be responsible for sorting out the payment.

Destroying someone’s garden is expensive when they refuse to pick up the tab.